Ultimate Computer Desk, part three

Having done what I could with a belt sander to flatten the desktop and bring the cherry trim flush with the laminate, it was time to address one of the key details of this piece:  the desktop edge.  I wanted a beveled edge to add interest and to reduce the heavy appearance of a 1-1/2 inch thick top.

The best way to follow the curved front edge, of course, is with a bearing-guided router bit.  The profile I wanted looks a lot like a standard 18-degree bevel raised panel edge, so I looked around at panel-raising bits.  None of them were exactly what I wanted, but the MLCS #8676 came very close.

This is my first experience with a panel raising bit, so when I opened the box and held the bit in my hand I was immediately both impressed and a little intimidated.  That is one big honkin’ chumk of metal — 3-1/2 inches wide, with a little 1/2″ bearing at the tip.  I could not imagine wanting that monster spinning above the table and anywhere near my fingers.  Given the size of my desktop, though, I wasn’t planning to.

One of the reasons I bought the Porter-Cable 890 was that it would fit the bases I already had for my dearly departed PC690.  It’s not exactly plug-and-play — you have to remove the rack on the motor that the 890 base uses for fine adjustment first — but the 890 motor does fit, despite being taller and heavier than a 690 motor.

I knew I’d need plenty of support to keep the router from tilting as I ran it along the desktop, so I took an uncut piece of 3/8″ polycarbonate, which measures not quite a foot square, and attached that to my 691 base with a 1-inch hole in the center.  Once I’d located the screw holes and mounted the subbase I installed the panel raising bit and put the 890 motor in the base.  With the speed turned down to 10,000RPM I turned on the motor and slowly twisted it to plunge the bit through the polycarbonate, creating the exact size hole I would need for bit clearance.  The PC690 could never handle a bit like this (not enough horsepower, no variable speed) but fortunately the base is wide enough to accommodate it.

I routed the profile in three passes, taking it slow and keeping the router oriented with the D handle pointing out so I’d have the maximum amount of subbase contacting the table top at all times.  After the third pass I had a nice, clean raised-panel profile:

Notice the lip on the edge?  That’s what I meant when I said the MLCS bit came close to what I wanted.  For making raised panels, of course, you want that lip — it’s where the panel slides into the grooves you made in your stiles and rails.  When I tried this out on a 2×4 practice frame, I considered replacing the bearing on the bit with the widest one from my rabbeting set, which would have reduced that lip to about 1/4 inch, but that meant the whole profile would be moved outward and I’d still have a lip to remove.  So I came up with another idea.

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But my desktop wasn’t done yet.  In the plan, you’ll notice a shelf above the desktop, supported by five short pieces.  That shelf has the same gentle curve on the front that the desktop and lower shelf do.

From a construction standpoint, the top shelf is very simple.  I trimmed it in cherry, using 1/2″ wide pieces at the sides and back and a 2-1/4 inch piece at the front.  I mitered the front corners, as with the top, and then used my CNC-machined template to lay out that front curve and trim it to shape with the router.  I didn’t want the full bevel profile on the top shelf (it would have wasted space and drawn attention away from the main desktop) so I just did a simple chamfer on the front and sides, upper and lower edges.

The five vertical supports are simply pieces of 3/4-inch cherry 5 inches long and 7 wide.  To fasten them securely I would need bare wood, so I used my compact router to make ten dadoes 3/4″ wide, 6-7/8″ long, and 1/8″ deep.  By making the dadoes slightly short I was able to notch the front edges of my shelf supports to hide any imperfections in my squaring off of the dado ends.

I glued the supports to the underside of the shelf and dry-fitted them to the desktop while it was in clamps, to make sure everything would still line up once the glue dried.  Once it was nice and dry, I applied Arm-R-Seal to the desktop frame and upper shelf.

 

 

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